Here's our story, which led off the February issue of Natural Directions. It also prompted the national publication Indian Country Today to run their own story, mentioning how Valerie's whole-food education at Bastyr prepared her to help tribes reconnect with their cultural wisdom. They also used some of our photos.
More on Valerie's work:
Segrest travels around the Puget Sound, from Lummi Island to the edge of the Cascade Mountains to the Olympic Peninsula. She explains the healthfulness of fresh salmon and wild greens. She roasts camas bulbs and sautés fresh stinging nettle. She shows why organic food isn't just for yuppies. She organizes workshops on processing deer and tanning fish skin (view a slideshow to the right), learning as she goes. She helps tribal schools plant gardens. She tries to figure out how those schools can serve elk meat and seafood when the USDA prohibits donations from hunters and shrimpers. She writes curricula so others can teach with her.
The need is clear: American Indians have disproportionately high rates of diabetes, heart disease, mental illness, obesity, infant mortality and other illnesses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. When Segrest began talking about reconnecting with traditional foods, she found intense interest in tribal communities. That desire is born out of both hope and frustration, Segrest says.
"People are tired of being so sick," she says. "They're just tired of it. 150 years ago, diabetes and heart disease did not exist in tribal communities. That's because we were eating a diet based on the land and the seasons and a protocol that ensured an abundance of foods. That's the picture we want to get back to."
The picture she has in mind reflects Bastyr's whole-food nutrition philosophy, which emphasizes eating a diversity of unprocessed foods. Her vision is not about returning to the past but finding modern incarnations of ancient foods: things like huckleberry smoothies, nettle pesto and rosehip jam.
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